Pottinger has updated its Harvest Assist mobile app to display the location of fields and clamps, organise process sequences, and guide machines.

According to the Austrian company, Harvest Assist "makes work significantly easier, provides efficient management and extensive logistics support and contributes to consistently high feed quality".

The Pottinger Connect telemetry unit installed on machinery is now available in two versions; one for ISOBUS machines and one for non-ISOBUS machines.

This turns mowers, rakes, balers and loader wagons into "smart machines" that communicate with Harvest Assist, Pottinger said.

Live machine data

Harvest Assist 4.0 allows for machine data to be continuously available to everyone in a harvesting group in real time.

People can join a group by clicking on a link sent by someone already in it.

Pottinger says that its data-sharing gives group participants an insight into transport/working times, the progress made on crops during harvest, and the process is taking place in fields.

Everyone in the group can see what each machine is doing at any given moment, so a loader driver can see if a silage trailer has gotten delayed on the road.

In addition to this, the app can calculate the nutrient requirement of each field by comparing the annual forage growth.

Swath mapping

According to Pottinger, the new version of Harvest Assist "displays the location, position, and status of each swath in an intuitive map that is always up-to-date".

Pottinger also said that the map marks high density points in the swath to warn drivers to slow down and avoid blockages.

This system could prove very effective for those with smaller-scale operations or agricultural operators using balers prone to blockages.

While your bigger machines may not need this service, it might give operators peace-of-mind to know when entering the field by providing them with insight into thick swaths and possibly even roping.

"No crop is ever left behind in the field, so nothing goes to waste and there are no forage residues in the next cut," Pottinger said.

Optimisation

When using the app with a baler, the bale map displays the weight of each bale, its moisture content, and exact location.

Pottinger believes this information will prove valuable when deciding the sequence in which the bales are collected and stored.

The company has also included a lot of information to aid contractors, such as baling time per bale, loading time per load, and other performance data such as output per hectare.

This makes it possible to compare the yield across different seasons, cuts, and fields, allowing contractors to more accurately price each job they do.

Pottinger's Harvest Assist app offers full functionality without any subscription fees.